BMO Capital Markets Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) Stock

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) had its price target boosted by BMO Capital Markets from $477.00 to $507.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays increased their price target on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $490.75.

Linde Price Performance

LIN opened at $458.32 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $472.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $451.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde has a 1 year low of $385.12 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $218.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.80, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.63 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Linde will post 15.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be issued a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.22%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Linde

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 16.9% in the third quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,367 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $652,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the period. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 0.9% during the third quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,706 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,290,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the third quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,831 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $873,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Finally, CNB Bank boosted its holdings in Linde by 2.9% in the first quarter. CNB Bank now owns 847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $393,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Linde Company Profile

Linde plc operates as an industrial gas company in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South Pacific. It offers atmospheric gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and rare gases; and process gases, such as carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, electronic gases, specialty gases, and acetylene.